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Monthly Archives: August 2013

Oh my! This has taken me longer then I thought it would to get to posting about this. Last weekend was our anniversary as you saw here. I let Sean plan our anniversary and he was doing a good job until he ran into some snags and we ended up planning parts of it together. We visited Rehoboth Beach in Delaware and Cape May, New Jersey all in one short weekend.

Our weekend started mid day Friday. He took the day off and I got off a noon. I raced home and in less then 30 minutes we were off and running to the beach.

Upon arriving at the beach, there happens to be an outlet mall that spans 3 locations because of the number of stores. As you can see we cleaned up nicely getting some great deals might I add. Always fun outlet mall shopping together.

We headed over to the Hotel Rehoboth where we stayed for the weekend and checked in. Then it was off to see the beach and find someplace to have some dinner. We quickly realized that August at the beach is packed and that it might take a while to get some dinner. We were going to go to the Dogfish Head Restaurant but they had a 45 minute wait and it started pouring down rain while we were waiting so we went in the restaurant next door that didn’t have a wait at all and was delicious.

Saturday was up and at ’em early to make our way over to the car ferry in Lewes, Delaware. We got very lucky, when we pulled up they told us that the first ferry was full but we might be able to get on it depending on how it filled. If we didn’t get on the first one we would have to wait an hour or so to get on the second one. Luckily we were one of the last ones on the ferry. Towards the front of the ferry there was a horse trailer on the ferry and you could hear the horses stomping around in there wanting to get out. Do you blame them?

Once we got to Cape May, we knew that we wanted to go to the Light House. We drove the short distance to the light house and toured that as well as walked around the beach there.

Once we finished at the Light House it was time to find some lunch. Easier said then done in Cape May. Finding a parking spot at a very crowded Beach on an August weekend was almost impossible. We finally found someplace to park after about 30 or 40 minutes of driving around. We walked down the street and found a Stewart’s Rootbeer Restaurant and had lunch there.

After being a little frustrated on finding a parking place and getting some lunch, we walked around Cape May. I did not take any pictures while we were walking around even though we did see some very neat Victorian houses along the way. We were going to walk on the beach but you actually have to pay to walk on the beach so we decided that it was time to try to play some putt putt. I had seen a place that I thought would be fun to play on our way in to town. It was more difficult then what we thought it was going to be but that it is completely ok.

For the record Sean won by two shots.. He gets to decide where we will be going next year for our anniversary. After playing putt putt we were done with Cape May. We were both ready to head back. We had originally planned to stay longer but we weren’t finding anything else we really wanted to do while there. We pulled up to the ferry terminal and Sean explained that we had reservations for one of the later ferries but we wanted to see if we could move it up to a time sooner. The lady replied yes I can probably get you on right now. She gave us on ticket and we were one of the last ones on the ferry. It worked out nicely.

My car would be the one right to the left of the motor home. That motor home swayed like crazy when it got a little choppy out on the water. It was not fun to watch.

Once back at Rehoboth it was time to figure out dinner. We found a nice place on the boardwalk and we were able to get reservations. It was just enough time to open the notebook from our wedding night and read what everyone at that table wrote to us. This table was my mom and dad, my grandparents and my brothers’ table. It was a lot of fun to read and I think that Sean and I both look even more forward to seeing what others wrote to us that night. It was neat to have a piece of our wedding with us while we celebrated. We also decided that it will be fun to take a picture with the notebook each year.

To finish out the weekend we went to the beach and got some pizza before leaving town and back to reality.

Needless to say we both could have spent a little longer but we also knew that we only have a short time before we head on vacation!

An added bonus on our way home was that as we passed by the DE City Refinery, we found another Heritage Unit. This one was the Wabash. Only fitting that a year ago on our wedding day Sean saw his first unit driving around while taking wedding pictures.

Unfortunately we were not able to get close to this unit to get decent pictures. It is the second engine in this picture. Sean has now seen 11 units and I have seen 6.

Wow it has been a year already! I can’t believe that we have already survived one year of marriage. Don’t doubt that we had our ups and downs throughout the year but we did it. This year we did travel quite a bit, we have settled more into the house, and I think we actually communicate better now then we ever have before. What all have we learned in the first year? Only to list a few of the many:

Sean loves to sit outside at night. I now sit out there with him (sometimes with a couple bottles of wine). These have turned into some of our most treasured times. We solve life’s big and little problems from our little front porch. When you can’t see the cows in the field in front of your house because the bushes are so tall, all you have to talk about our life’s problems. We can conquer the world out there.

I like keeping track of the money. Sean hates to write it down monthly. We have learned that it is a good balance to our relationship and more importantly to our lives to keep track of the finances. We have done well in our first year of marriage in keeping track of these things (sometimes much to Sean’s dismay) and I have to say that we have accomplished something big in being completely debt free. I feel like this was a big accomplishment for us!

One thing that I feel we have done a really good job of doing throughout the year is keep our individual hobbies and interest. I feel like Sean encourages me to keep doing the things that I enjoy and to pursue them. Yes sometimes that means me hanging out on my computer a little bit more often then he likes sometimes, whether that is on Pinterest or designing something or in my office sewing a project. He also finds the time more work on his trains or chase after some of the unique trains.

Sharing in experiences throughout the year has been big for us. We have traveled to several states and have several more on the agenda for the calendar year. The last couple months we have really worked to plan our first real vacation together in the near future and we are super excited the things that we have picked out to do while we are away. Another shared experience we have done this year included doing one of Sean’s favorite things, chasing trains all over the local area. That being said I have seen about five of the Heritage Units which is pretty cool. One thing that we have shared a lot of this year (but we still feel like it could include more) is our time on the boat. This is an escape for both of us and we enjoy it even more each time we are there.

He is my rock. I don’t always have the easiest time being as far away from home as what I am but no matter when or where I am and the feeling of homesickness hits me, he is always there to let me cry and support me the best he can! I know it can’t be easy on him to deal with me when I am homesick and I appreciate it more and more each time it happens.

Pursuing our dreams is possible when there is support from your partner. This year was the year that we both decided we would try going back to school. Sean had a much more difficult task then I did by taking some classes to catch up before starting to apply for Master’s programs. He did it and did well in both classes. I know it wasn’t easy for him to be taking classes and working full time but I did try to take care of some extra things around the house so that he could either go to class or take his quizzes or tests. I, on the other hand, started taking some continuing education classes at the coaxing of Sean. I have always had an interest in Photography and he knew that me taking classes would help me get better at the craft.

Would I trade our first year of marriage for anything? Absolutely not. Even though we fight over the stupid small stuff somedays or he doesn’t like what I fixed for dinner or I am lazy and don’t want to clean the house every single weekend, never ever in a million years would I trade it for anything! I can only hope that we grow each year and continue with a very strong relationship.

You will see more in another post about what we did to celebrate our first anniversary soon!

One of my favorite things about summer is the amount of tomatoes that we get from the farm. When I lived at home, we had family members that always ended up giving us a good amount of vegetables that they worked so hard to raise. It was awesome. I also really like salsa.

I had found a recipe on The Pioneer Woman that quickly became one of my favorite recipes for salsa. I wanted to try to make it even more fresh then using the can of tomatoes and I feel like I accomplished it for the most part. I did roast the tomatoes to get them some what like what they come out of the can and so they would crush a little better.

It turned out pretty good but I think I added a few too many fresh jalapenos in it though. I really enjoyed it but I think it is a little too spicy for the mister.

This past Sunday I knew that we were going to be home in the morning and I actually wanted something for breakfast. I didn’t want eggs or bacon and I had remembered seeing this idea on Pinterest one day and thought it would be fun to try. I put cinnamon rolls from a package into our waffle maker. I put three in at a time and cooked them into one big waffle. We topped them with the icing. Really good! The only thing that I would do next time is not cook them as long. These got brown really fast and almost burnt.